


To be a Good Leader

by Betery



Series: Highnoon in the Universe [8]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Black Paladin Lance (Voltron), Canon Typical Violence, Gen, Langst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 05:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12074850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Betery/pseuds/Betery
Summary: When Lance is with overwatch before a mission, he witnesses something a little less than friendly happen. Winston and Jack get into an argument that sparks a lot of interest in Lance so he asks about what had happened. And as per the norm recently this lesson carries over into his life with Voltron when Shiro goes missing. A new Black paladin has to be chosen, then a mission goes awry when Haggar forces Lance to face a none-too-pleased Shiro.





	To be a Good Leader

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! I hope you're all doing well. This part went through a few re-writes so I hope it meets with all of your approval :)

**Then:**

**For all the fun that Lance had and the good times that obviously went with it, it wasn’t uncommon to hear people arguing. Such as Zarya (the epic goddess that she was) having heated debates with Zenyatta (the calm immovable force) or Genji having strong words with Hanzo about one thing or another. (‘Genji, if you MUST sharpen your blade, do so NOT in my quarters!’ ‘Well, brother I would like to point out that time when you used my bedroom walls to test the sharpness of your arrows!’)**

**Even Mei for all her sweetness can have her disagreements, but those were calmer and more like ‘Please I would very much appreciate it Satya if we would get along better while trying to interpret this data! It will save millions of lives!’**

**Lance loved seeing how everyone interacted from how Lena would pull harmless pranks and how Gabe would REACT to those pranks. Hanging out with Lucio and having impromptu lectures, hanging out with Pa and Gabe in the shooting range.**

**Of all the people that Lance had expected to argue he had to admit Winston and Jack were at the bottom of that list.**

**Lance was wandering again, as it's becoming his habit and he was passing Winston’s lab where he heard Jack and Winston loudly talking at each other.**

**“I’m telling you, this plan isn’t going to work.”**

**“We have Lucio as back up, you know that he can get anywhere quickly enough and he can watch Mcree’s six!”**

**“That doesn’t excuse-“**

**“I’m the one in charge of this, I’ve passed this through Mcree and Lucio, the plan is final.”**

**Jack growled, clenching his fists as he straightened his shoulders. “You really think you can do my job?”**

**Winston glared right back, “Someone has to.”**

**This was obviously an old hurt because Jack _actually_ flinched but quickly regained himself and glared. “This isn’t over.” And he stalked out, walking right past Lance in his hiding spot, frozen up from surprise.  **

**Winston sighed and took off his glasses to rub at his face.**

**“Winston?” Lance asked, walking into the room, Winston jerked his chin up sharply.**

**“Oh, Lance! Was there something you needed?”**

**Lance shook his head. “Just wandering around, are you and Jack…?”**

**Winston gave a shrug, “Soldier 76 is… disapproving of a plan for a payload objective. He doesn’t quite know how to let go of the past.” Winston’s eyes became cloudy, “We all thought that he had…but it turns out that he wasn’t. He didn’t make the call, I… I’m not a _good_ leader, Lance. I make a lot of mistakes, but I do my best to do right by my family. Because it’s the right thing to do.” Winston’s eyes clear, starting straight into Lance, “Do you understand?**

**Lance nodded. “Yeah, I think I do.”**

**\--**

**The absolute burning need to know Jack’s side of the story was clawing at Lance’s insides. What had gone wrong with Overwatch? Why was Jack so bitter towards Winston?**

**Lance had the hardest time looking for Jack. It apparently worried his Pa, “I’m about to ship out. What’s got you all in a tizzy, scamp?”**

**“I wanted to ask Jack a couple questions, but I’ve looked almost everywhere.”**

**Pa rose an eyebrow, tipping his hat back, “What questions got you burning so bad?”**

**This, was kinda awkward because Lance knew that what had happened before the fall of Overwatch wasn’t pretty, so he just shrugged, “Uh, you know just…tips on how to be awesome.”**

**Pa wasn’t buying it, but he sighed, bumping his shoulder against Lance’s. “Soldier 76 is the kind ‘a man that can disappear at the snap of a finger if he likes. Whatever’s got him in a mood if he doesn’t wanna be found he won’t be. Just be patient, scamp.”**

**Eventually wasn’t really a good enough answer but Lance accepted it, “Thanks, Pa, be safe out there, okay?”**

**Pa laughed, “You bet I’ll be safe. Winston’s got a pretty good team built for this mission.” He ruffled Lance’s hair and was on his way. Which left Lance trying to figure out how he was gonna corner, Jack…**

**\--**

**It turns out Jack was the one that cornered him, Lance had just about given up and grabbed a book and plopped on his couch and started reading it. He would just look for Jack later…the door opened up and there was the soldier standing Tall and his visor off, an expression of exasperation clear as day, “Mind telling me why you’ve been searching this complex top and bottom for me? You got _Vaswani_ of all people to hunt me down and look for you.” **

**Well that was an amusing sight, Lance chuckled and closed the book, “Uh, I..just wanted to talk about what you and Winston were talking about earlier, and I wanted to know what exactly happened to Overwatch to make you quit being its leader in the first place?” Lance winced, bracing for an explosion, but all he got was a tired sigh.**

**“You _really_ don’t wanna know Kid, but I’ll give the PG summary.” **

**Jack walked to the couch and shoved Lance's legs off of the cushions so he could sit.**

**“The UN was in charge overall. I could make plans all I wanted, but it had to go through them for approval. We needed their funding, we needed them to like us. They liked me, so… I became the poster boy, the leader. Over say, more qualified personnel.” Lance could just FEEL the story behind that loaded statement, “Somehow, I got it in my head, that the amount of control the UN had over us was fine. But it wasn’t. It drove a lot of good things away from me. Things ended...explosively. Which caused this.” He waved a hand over his face, “And being a dead man turned vigilante was better than nothing.”**

**Jack turned to give Lance a searching expression,**

**“Lance, I loved Overwatch. It was and is my family to this day. I gave up on it, which I shouldn’t have… there IS some part of me that wishes I had made the call, that I could have been as brave as Winston. But there are some things you can’t ever go back on. Sometimes being an army of one isn’t enough.”**

**Jack’s shoulders had slumped and his jaw was set at the end of his speech… Lance reached out a hand and placed it on Jack’s arm.**

**“But you have your family again, you don’t have to be an army of one anymore.” Jack chuckled.**

**“You’re right, you’re absolutely right.”**

**Jack got up, “I hope that cleared things up for you.” And he headed out.**

**\--**

It had been a couple weeks since Shiro’s disappearance, everyone was on edge. Lance was trying to hold it together, at first by pretending nothing was wrong by doing his normal thing, but when Pidge snapped at him to stop being stupid and take things seriously he had to make a bit of a change of tactics when he saw the bags under their eyes.

Lance, along with Coran took it upon themselves to look after the remaining members of Team Voltron, Lance taking on Keith and Hunk to try and get them to sleep and Pidge and Allura for Coran to do the same. While it may have worked a little bit, having to keep tabs on Team Voltron at all hours was as taxing as a fruitless search for Shiro.

Lance had had enough. He was tired, he hadn’t done his skin care routine in days and Allura had just announced yet ANOTHER training session. Lance stood up at the dinner table, knocking his chair back. His fists clenched and trembling just a bit.

“This is not gonna work guys, I can’t remember the last time I slept properly and the Galran empire is still out there while we’re STILL searching his sector for Shiro. We can’t just... we can’t-”

Hank placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder steadying him physically and emotionally, “We can’t just sit around chasing our tails. That isn’t what Shiro would want.”

 Lance nodded.

“To find Shiro, we have to be at our best, and to be at our best we have to eat properly, sleep properly.” Take a breath, drop the bomb, “…and figure out our paladin situation.” Lance says to everyone. They were going to find Shiro, but they had to save the Universe too. So…they just had one more item on the endless list of heroics.

“We don’t have to decide now, let’s sleep or something but we can’t keep going on like this.” The silence was deafening and everyone went back to poke at their food-goo.

One night of good rest later and the team met up again, Lance having to take point after two minutes of silence and no one stepping up. “We have to figure out who Black will choose. The particle barrier is up so...whoever she opens up to is the black paladin I guess.”

The silence was once again tangible and uncomfortable. Pidge sighed, “Let’s just... get this over with.” They mutter turning on their heel and heading down to the hanger.

“You heard the Lady!” Coran encouraged, “Let’s get a move on.”

Everyone started walking and Hunk saddled up next to Lance. “Do you really think one of us is a suitable black paladin?”

Lance looks at Hunk and gives him a smile, one full of confidence he only partially felt, “Dude, we’re in big trouble if she doesn’t pick any of us. A small bundle of hope lingered in Lance if he could be the black paladin. He could prove that he was a good leader, prove Iverson wrong make his pa proud... _Replace Shiro_ Lance shook his head. The situation they were going to be in was a temporary one, Shiro would come back and replace whoever was the Black paladin and everything would return to normal. No matter what.

His mind got lost in that suppressed anxiety as they made their way down. He had so many families that loved him, adored him, and encouraged him. He had no proper reason to feel so out of place, it was like these feelings suddenly reared their ugly head at the most inopportune moment. Was he cut out to be a leader? Or was he just trying to fill Shiro’s place in some twisted way to keep equilibrium?

The blue glow of Black’s particle barrier distracted Lance from the swirling depression of his thoughts.

Keith was standing a little way away, arms crossed as he looked up at the Lion with an undecipherable expression.

“Hey Keith.” Lance greets, carefully standing beside him, “You look like you’re thinking pretty hard there.”

He shrugs, “I… just miss Shiro is all. No one can replace him.”

So Lance wasn’t the only one. “I get it,” Lance says, placing a hand on his shoulder. “But it’s not replacement. Just.. a temporary fill-in. An emergency uptake on the roll. Whoever black choose would be the new black paladin. Until Shiro came home that is.” Just say it enough times and maybe it’ll become true.

“Alright.” Allura called attention to herself, “We will each, one at a time approach the particle barrier. I assume that if one of us if worthy, then the barrier will fall away.”

Pidge snorted, “So this is like Camelot.”

“I’m not entirely sure what you mean, but I’ll go ahead and say yes!” Coran interjects, “And since I believe I’m the least likely I’ll go first.” And Coran placed a hand on the very firm barrier. He waited two seconds (three ticks? One tick? Altean time was still strange.)

“Well, it appears I am _not_ the new black Paladin. Allura?”

Allura placed a hand delicately against the barrier and waited a few seconds (or ticks)

“It appears that I am not the black paladin either. Who would like to go next?”

Pidge gave an exasperated sigh and slapped their hand against the barrier waiting two seconds before taking their hand off, “Nope! Next!”

Lance looked at Hunk and he slinked up to the barrier, and as the other had before him he placed his hand (shaking as it was) on the particle barrier, it was on there a scant of a second before he tore his hand off with a: “NOPE NOPE NOT IT, YOU GO LANCE.”

It would have been preferable to be the last person, dramatics an all that, but Lance took the bait and reached out, placing his palm over the barrier. He closed his eyes and reached out. _Come on Black, someone’s gotta lead Voltron._ There was no response. Maybe black was just warming up to him?

One minute, two. Nothing. At the four-minute mark as Hunk was starting to fidget he sighed, looking over at Keith with a weak smile.

“Give it a go, man.”

This was not an ideal situation, Keith obviously didn’t want the title and at this point it was just formality but it was a necessary evil. Black had to let the barrier down at some point, for someone, and Lance would do his best not to be bitter at the fact that it wasn’t him.

It was like watching a movie scene as Keith walked up to black, with a sense of detachment and a severe lack of popcorn as the (former) Red paladin placed a shaking hand (worse than Lance’s had been) on the barrier like it would burn him; but where everyone expected it to fall away or burst into little lights…nothing happened.

“WHAT?” Keith practically screamed and he hit the barrier with his fist in agitation, “NONE of us are worthy? How does that even WORK? Shiro- Shiro _isn’t_ here Black, we can’t just- we can’t just do NOTHING while you wait for him!”

Keith slammed his fist into the barrier, again and again, this was getting out of hand and no one else was trying to intervene. Hunk was nervous and Allura apprehensive like she was weighing the pros and cons. Guess it was up to Lance.

“Keith, KEITH! Listen, buddy.” He grasped Keith’s left shoulder giving it a tight squeeze, “So what if none of us are qualified for black? Someone in the universe is, and we’ll find them, together.”

Keith’s breath was ragged but started to calm. “Right. Black knows what she’s doing.”

Lance grinned, “She is wise beyond our years, maybe even this whole universe. No matter what happens we’re still gonna beat some Galra butt and find Shiro.” Then Lance placed a hand on the barrier, next to Keith’s hand that was still desperately trying to claw its way in.

In a light _woosh_ the barrier dissipated evaporating into little orbs of light Black opening to not just Lance, not just Keith but BOTH of them together- as a _team_.

Jaws were dropped and Keith and Lance looked at each other, and Lance grins. “Keith, it would do me the greatest of being Black Bro brolladin's with you.”

Keith hit Lance, but only halfheartedly. “You suck at bro-puns. Let’s gear up.”

As everyone filed out Hunk shouted, “But wait- who’ll pilot red when Keith’s in black and blue when Lance is in Black? How- how is this gonna work??”

That… was a good question. One that would be solved eventually.

\--

A few weeks pass by with all the piloting situation figured out and it was Lance’s turn again to pilot Black.

He took a breath feeling the bond between paladin and Lion as he flew through space trying to get to where he needed to be to be in position to strike the Galran base.

He landed Black in an outcropping of rocks a click or so away from the base, then summoned his rifle and took a breath. He had to shut down the major generator from the inside to give an opening for the others to go ahead and attack, come back out and fly up to form Voltron. The whole mission should take a half hour. It’ll be fine.

“Alright guys, I’m heading in.” He says into the coms, then shuts them off.

Sneaking in wasn’t so hard, it was finding where he needed to be that was the hard part. Pidge had given him his best shot at directions, but without blue, he was in no way able to get where he needed to be. But this was his idea, so he piloted black and Allura got blue. It was fine. Things were fine.

Two more lefts, unfortunately, one of the lefts had a bunch of droids patrolling and Lance had to make a quick get away which included Lance slipping into the first room he saw which led him to a dark room with a weird red glow to it where a shrouded figure was muttering to herself over a console. He’d recognized the crappy embroidery anywhere.

“Haggar.” Lance snarled taking aim.

The figure paused, straightening from her hunched position to turn and look at lance, her eyes just as dead as ever. She sized him up from head to foot. “Ah. Paladin.” She greeted with little pleasure her mouth turning into a frown.

“I see you’re still kicking.” Lance barbed.

“And I see you’re still trying to fit in a role far too big for you.” She returned and waved her hand in an arch her fingers glowing in dark quintessence and the particles flew into Lance’s eyes, causing him to shout and stumble back scrubbing at his face trying to clear his vision so he could take the shot. Kill Haggar, then the generator. Maybe Allura would give him a prize.

When Lance managed to open his eyes again Hagar was gone, in fact, the creepy room he had been in was gone. Instead, he was in a darker room, no red light just... darkness. He couldn’t identify any doorways or escape routes, and someone a little ways off had their back turned on Lance.

As he got closer Lance recognized exactly who it was. “Shiro?” He asked, and Shiro turned around startled but when he saw it was Lance, his shoulders straightened and his fists clenched.

“What do you think you’re doing, here?” He scolds, his expression livid and his nose wrinkled. This wasn’t like Shiro at all, he hadn’t even done anything wrong!

“What do you mean? I was trying to take out Hagar! I mean, at first, I was trying to figure out how to-“

“ Whatever you _were_ doing doesn’t matter now. You’re _here_ with _me_ , you’re letting the TEAM down.”

What? Lance took a step back, something was very wrong here. “What do you mean, I was just WITH them, then Haggar put this- STUFF in my eyes and-“

Shiro shoved Lance, he had never done that before- “Cut the crap. You got yourself in a bad situation and now you’re- _we’re_ both stuck here with no way to get out!”

“I was _trying to_ do my job!” Lance shouted, shoving back at Shiro, “I’m the black paladin for this mission, and I can rely on OUR teammates to figure out what’s wrong with us!”

Shiro stood stunned, his expression darkening, “You really think you can do my job?”

And that was the question, wasn’t it? Was Lance able to handle the role of the Black Paladin the head of Voltron? Lance felt small, so small in that moment with Shiro starring him down like that but he wasn’t going to just back down. He couldn’t afford the pressure to break him. He was better than a little insecurity he could count on his team, his family. He could and  _would_ handle it.

“ _Someone_ has to.” Lance asserts, remembering the nights he had to get hunk into bed and stop stress baking. How he had to stop Keith from having a breakdown in front of Black's barrier. Squaring his shoulders Lance got up in Shiro’s face, “You disappeared, and we’re trying to get you back as fast as we can but we can’t stay fallen apart forever. If that means I have to do what you can’t then I'm gonna quiznacking _do it_.”

Because if no one else makes the call, and even if you're not the best qualified to do it. You  _make_ that call.

Lance opened his mouth to say it too, but Shiro’s stood stunned, his jaw dropped and his eyebrows pointed down in anger, then he sets his jaw and growls out“I hope you know what you’re doing.” His eyes flashed yellow everything melting back into the room that he and Haggar had been in before. Minus Haggar of-freaking-course.

Someone else was there though right next to Lance, grabbing onto his shoulders.

“Lance, LANCE common, don't just stand there; you’re freaking me out!” Keith practically shouted, shaking him back into awareness. Why was Keith there?

Oh man, the generator! Lance took a step to run but a wave of dizziness came over him nausea rolling in his stomach. Lance holding onto his head and laid an arm across his stomach groaning. Keith grabbed both Lance’s shoulders to steady him.

“Easy there, pal.”

“Wha…what?” Lance mumbled, “Wait, I saw Haggar, and then Shiro was- god I-“Lance felt his throat close up. Had that just been a vision? Or had he really seen Shiro?

“What about Shiro?” Keith probed. Lance really REALLY wanted to tell Keith what had happened but was it even real? Had Lance seen the real Shiro stuck in some darkness all alone? Telling anyone right now would just distract from the mission.

“I’ll. I’ll tell you about it, later.” Lance decided, his voice a bit flat as he looked at Keith who doesn’t look convinced but nodded anyway.

“What are you guys even doing here? How long was I out?”

“You didn’t give the signal, and any attempt to contact you was met with silence. Pidge and I came in to recover you, I went one way and Pidge went the other, now let’s go-”

“Everybody OUT!” Pidge shouts over the coms, “We’ve got like 10 minutes till this place blows to kingdom come.”

Lance slaps on a grin, “Plenty of time to leave and see the fireworks.” Maybe he could hold onto his lunch until he got back too.

As Lance and Keith ran for the hills to their Lions Lance couldn’t help but think about (fake?) Shiro’s disapproval; however, Lance couldn’t afford to second guess himself, or the choices he made for the team. He wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but he had faith his family. And this family was going to get Shiro back.

**Author's Note:**

> So how did I do? I know it doesn't really follow canon but I really prefer the idea of the head of Voltron being a shared role. If anyone has any questions about why I made that decision feel free to ask! You can make your own conclusions if you like as well.   
> Complaints? Comments Criticisms? Comment below and shoot me a kudos too! It seriously makes my day. Bye now, darlings!


End file.
